Phillies drop series to Marlins with tonight's loss

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Final: Miami Marlins 9, Philadelphia Phillies 3 ❖ Attendance: 27,839

Philadelphia, PA — The Philadelphia Phillies (44-53) continued their recent struggles in tonight's loss to the Miami Marlins (52-43). This is the first time in franchise history that the Marlins have won a series of four or more games in Philadelphia. Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff clearly didn't have his best stuff, allowing six runs, with five of them being earned, over five innings. It didn't help that Marlins right-hander Tom Koehler was on top of his game, only allowing two hits over eight innings, with both hits being home-runs.

Beyond the homers by Ryan Howard and Freddy Galvis, there wasn't much excitement in the game. However, there was buzz surrounding Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. With his two hits tonight, Suzuki is four hits shy of 3,000 for his career. It seems likely that he'll reach that career milestone before the Phillies and Marlins face off in Miami next week.

WP: Tom Koehler (7-8, 4.42 ERA) ❖ LP: Jerad Eickhoff (6-11, 3.98 ERA)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
MIA	0	0	0	4	2	0	0	3	0	9	16	1
PHI	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	3	3	2

After a quiet first inning, the Marlins threatened in the second. Marcell Ozuna reached on an error by left fielder Cody Asche. Derek Dietrich followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff was able to get Chris Johnson to ground into a double play to put a runner at third with two outs. Eickhoff struck out Jeff Mathis for the final out of the inning.

Things were quiet again for both teams until the top of the fourth. Christian Yelich led off the inning with a solo home-run to left field. Ozuna followed with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Dietrich was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and third with no outs for Johnson. This time, Johnson was able to come up in the clutch with a double down the third base line. Ozuna scored on the play and Dietrich went to third. Mathis grounded out to score another run and move Johnson over to third. Adeiny Hechavarria hit a double off the right field wall to score yet another run to give the Marlins a four run lead. Eickhoff was able to get the last two outs to avoid any further damage.

The Phils fought back in the bottom half of the inning. Peter Bourjos reached on an error and scored one out later on a home-run to left field by Ryan Howard. This was the first hit of the game for the Phillies and it came at the right time.

The Marlins jumped on Eickhoff again in the top of the fifth, with Martin Prado and Yelich leading off the inning with back-to-back singles. Prado was able to score on a wild pitch, while Yelich advanced to second. One out later, Dietrich singled on a ball to Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis. While he should have gotten the sure out at first, Galvis instead made the decision to try to get the runner at third and threw the ball away. Yelich was able to score on the play. Eickhoff retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

In the top of the eighth inning, Mathis hit a ball to center field that Odubel Herrera misjudged. The ball went all the way to the wall and the Marlins catcher ended up at third on what was called a triple. One out later, he scored on the third hit of the year by pitcher Tom Koehler. Then, Ichiro Suzuki and Prado each singled to load up the bases. Ozuna singled to score two more runs for the Marlins. The Phillies were yet again able to get out of the inning, but at this point, it was too late to consider a late inning comeback possible.

The Phillies got their second hit of the game in the bottom of the eighth in the form of a homer to dead center field by Galvis. However, it didn't put much of a dent in the Marlins' lead. The Phillies ultimately weren't able to muster anywhere near enough offense to combat the sixteen hits by the Marlins and were silenced by Marlins reliever Mike Dunn in the ninth inning to end the game.

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